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Time for UK to say sorry for Jallianwala carnage

THE centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is less than two months away.

Time for UK to say sorry for Jallianwala carnage

Opportunity: An apology will not erase the century-old scar, but it can help in healing the wounds and putting Indo-British ties on a sound footing.



Bharat H Desai & Balraj K Sidhu

Bharat H Desai & Balraj K Sidhu
Professor, JNU; faculty, IIT-Kharagpur

THE centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is less than two months away. It was on April 13, 1919, that the British perpetrated one of the bloodiest carnages on Indian soil. It is difficult to imagine the brutality and arrogance of power unleashed on peaceful protesters. The sordid event became a turning point in India’s modern history. It also left an indelible scar on Indo-British ties. 

In a nation’s history, such a long period is a decisive one and a moment of reflection to strive for ‘closure’. No Union government seems to have made sincere efforts to prevail upon Britain to accept responsibility for the killings. As the centenary nears, the British government must sincerely tender an apology and issue a postage stamp on the Amritsar massacre. It must also provide suitable compensation to be deposited with the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust. As nations have continuing responsibilities, it makes sense that the British government respects the sensitivities of the Indian people. An apology will not bring back the dead or erase the deep scar. However, it can help in healing the wounds and putting Indo-British ties on a sound footing.

Britain did relent in the case of the Mau Mau nationalist uprising in Kenya, which was brutally suppressed by the British colonial government in the 1950s. Over 50 years later, then British Foreign Secretary William Hague apologised and agreed to pay compensation of £19.9 million to 5,228 claimants. This set a precedent for other claims against Britain for its actions in its former colonies.   

We live in an era where a marked shift can be seen in attitudes of sovereign states to acknowledge past historical wrongs. In recent years, several countries have stepped forward to come to terms with their ugly past. Apologies have been tendered by Japan for ‘comfort women’, Australia for the ‘Stolen Generation’ and Germany for the Holocaust. Time and again, nations have joined the chorus through the usage of words such as ‘regret’, ‘shame’, ‘remorse’, ‘sorry’, etc. for past wrongs. These efforts convey a feeling of remorse, yet fall short of full attribution of the State’s responsibility. 

The apology tendered by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons in May 2016 for the Komagata Maru incident in 1914 received a standing ovation. It happened partly due to political mobilisation by descendents of Sikh immigrants in Canada who now wield economic and political influence.  

Another momentous event took place on May 27, 2016, when then US President Barack Obama appeared at the Hiroshima bomb site. His decision, taken in an election year, led to the first such trip by a sitting US President. The Obama visit fell short of an apology. However, his presence at the site of death and destruction, humility of the action as well as carefully chosen words indicated atonement. “We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell... we listen to a silent cry… demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself,” he said. 

An apology can satisfy psychological needs of offended parties/States and trigger a process of forgiveness and the healing touch. But it can open a Pandora’s box of selectivity, as regards which historical wrong qualifies for a belated apology. 

In general, every internationally wrongful act of a State, which constitutes a breach of its obligations, entails the responsibility of that State as per the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001. The Articles provide for full reparation for the injury caused by the conduct of a State. Modes of reparation could include restitution, compensation, or satisfaction. An apology “may be given verbally or in writing by an appropriate official or even the head of State” (Article 37).  France’s apology for blowing up of the Rainbow Warrior (1986) in Auckland harbour and the US apology to Germany in the LaGrand (2001) case for failure to notify the accused of their right to communicate with German consular officials are some instances. 

Historical wrongs have no straightforward solution. Ironically, apologies have often been derided as ‘tokenism’ and in some cases lack genuineness. In the case of the ‘comfort women’, the compensation and ‘most sincere apologies and remorse’ by Japan has been revoked by the new government in South Korea. 

Has the time come for us to seek an apology from the British government? We need to seize the moment to finally heal wounds inflicted by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It will be a huge boost to the wounded Indian pride after an agonising wait of a century. One hopes that the Union government will go all out to make the British government realise that the passage of 100 years is the right occasion to tender a sincere apology. It could finally let the souls of those killed in the massacre rest in peace.

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